Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-08-18
MASCULINE DRESS.

1'esS
MASCULINE DRESS.
4 Lady Who Thinks That Reform Il
Badly Needed Among Moa.
/ must confess that / have given
very little thought to the subject Of
mans dress, but I can say that l
think the present styles Of gentle
mems dress are. for the most part un-
graceful, the cut being bad. and the
colors cold. The nearest approach to
beauty is the uniform Of the Prussian
officers This comprises tight trous-
ers, a coat closely fitting the form and
gay colOrs The Austrian officers
also have a beautiful uniform. If
men. in their ordinary dress. con-
formed to such an attire as this. it
would be more agreeable to those who
have to look at them.
As for evening dress, I see no rea-
son why the court dress-knee-
hreeches. silk stockings. frilled shirt.
diamond buckles and all the rest Of
such paraphernalia-should not be
adopted. 1t is certainly picturesque
and beautiful. and the objection
which has been been made to it can
not hold good. were it kept exclu.
sively for evening wear.
1t has been contended, that the court
dress is unsuited for work-a-day life.
By evening the working part Of the
day is over. and the gentleman trans
formed thus from the garb to the but
terfy, would treble his chances with
the ladies by making himself that
''thing of beauty" which. according
to the poet. is Joy forever. The
only objection which l could find to
such a change would be that every
body would be getting married. The
worst looking and most commonplace
of men would be vastly improved by
such q costume, and could scarcely
fail to secure a wife. Will those to
whom nature had been more generous
would be bored by attentions from the
fair sex worse than even poor actor
Montague was.
There was a movement in favor OF
knee breeches some years ago. and
they were adopted to some extent at
evening assemblies, but the critics
were too much for them
Englishmen d. ess better than Amer.
leans, because they dress more suitably.
An Englishman has his morning coat,
his afternoon coat, and his evenin.
coat, and of course his other clothes to
correspond. Fer other occasions he
has appropriate costumes. as. for in
stance, the scarlet coat for the hunting
field. the Norfolk jacket for country
wear and boating. and the tennis suit.
Sack-coats are very ugly. and frOck-
coats are not much better. but l sup
pose the ordinary business suit is as
we'll fitted for the use that an ordinary
man makes of it in the business day as
any other that could be devised. 1t ie
the evening dress of conventional black
that l find 50 unnecessarily revolving.
Why man. when he arrays himself
for q festive occasion. should want to
look as much like his butler or his un-
dertaker. as possible, is past my CONF
prehcnsion. Why. group of gentle
men at q ceremonious evening gather
ing are as much alike as . row of
crows!
At evening parties they now wear =
sort of sack dress-coat which is tolera-
bic, and white waistcoats are beginning
to be seen again. This is a slight i'm
provement, and we may yet see men
attired in such a way that the dress
shall proclaim the man.
It is sometimes asked what is the
difference between well-dressed gem
tleman and dude. It seems to me
that there is psychological side to
this question. What influence does
dress have upon two different kinds of
menp The dude is part of his dress
while the dress il part of the gentle
man. That is, the gentleman Is easy
unconscious of his cjo:hing-domi.
mates it, in fact. We all remember the
answer to Dundreary's conundrum that
the dog 'waggled" his tail because
the dog was stronger than the tail.
Otherwise the tail would waggls tho
dog.
1t Il something the same with dress.
A gentleman wears good clothes nat
urally. while. to give the definition Of
Herr Teufclsdrockh. . dude lis .
clothes-wearing man. a man whose
trade, Office and existence consist in
the wearing of clothes. Every f,cult5
Of his soul. spirit pulse and person Is
heroically oonsecrased to this ono Oh.
iect. the wearing Of clothes wisely and
we'll; 90 that. as Others dress to live.
he lives to dress -Doro Wheeler, ~
Epoch.